ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the construct Satyagraha could help to expand the current parameters of the scholarship on resilience and inform current approaches to violence. The World Health Organisation report identifies violence as a global public health priority and the increasing scholarship and intervention programmes attest to this global concern. The chapter also argues that the dimensions are particularly significant for post-colonial contexts and that the notion of Satyagraha is a potentially useful construct to expand people conceptualisation of community resilience, as well as inform violence prevention. Certainly in the South African context apartheid was maintained and liberation movements made a decision to complement civil resistance with an armed struggle. The gap between the rich and poor globally continues to widen at an unprecedented rate and the neo-liberal agenda remains entrenched in countries like South Africa. While ‘cultural’ or value resources are important they must always be located within a social context.
